Cornélio Penna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cornélio Penna | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 20, 1896 |
| Died | February 12, 1958 (aged 61) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Occupation | writer, painter, printmaker |
| Alma mater | Faculdade de Direito do Largo de São Francisco |
| Period | 1935 - 1954 |
| Notable works | A Menina Morta |
| Notable awards | Prêmio Carmem Dolores Barbosa |
Cornélio de Oliveira Penna (February 20, 1896 – February 12, 1958) was a Brazilian novelist and plastic artist. He is better known for pioneering psychological realism in Brazilian literature.
Born in Petrópolis into a middle-class family, he soon moved to Itabira, a small rural town that would later inspire the settings of some of his novels. According to Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Cornélio ''was born, lived and died interiorly in Itabira''.[1] He would then complete his secondary education in Campinas and enroll at the Faculty of Law of São Paulo, from which he earned his bachelor's degree.[2][3]
Established in Rio de Janeiro, he began working as a professional artist, holding solo exhibitions of his canvases and drawing illustrations for newspapers. During this period he attended meetings held by the traditionalist Centro Dom Vital.[4] In the early 1930s, he abandoned his career as an artist to dedicate himself to writing.
His early novels drew the attention of many critics.[5] Alceu Amoroso Lima compared his prose and introspective themes to those of French-American author Julien Green. Academic critics recognized Penna, together with Octavio de Faria and Lúcio Cardoso, as representatives of an ''intimist'' style of realism, as opposed to the predominant socially-oriented regionalism of the time.[6][7]
He died in 1958, leaving behind an unfinished novel, Alma Branca, which was published posthmously in 2020 along with other texts.